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A brief look at how surfing protects us from the constant humdrum of the days.
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That surf sesh when you surf a wave you’ll never forget.
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Fresh meet salt. (C) Sara Dyer
4/3/21 - The wind looked perfect, and timing of tide perfect too, so I headed north to one of the magical spots that I rarely get to. I usually stick to LS because it’s reliable and familiar but I wanted to push out of my comfort zone a bit, and it was the weekend, so things were more flex.
I was the only one paddling out, which gave me pause, but it was so calm, I went for it anyway (newsflash, you can still take it to the head when it’s tiny and zippy, and it ain’t great to be alone in that scenario).
And I didn’t catch shit for about a half hour or rather, I was getting stomped, ass-kicked by tiny waves who were making it clear I didn’t understand them. I was treating the waves like I was at LS, and I realized, very quickly, that they were very different here. I had forgotten. Here, the waves were less forgiving, walling up faster, breaking shallow. And, so, I realized I had to be judicious. I had to watch the waves, and I learn to read them. While I’ve been surfing non stop for two+ years, I’m often so stoked and bananas, I just want to go for everything that seems surfable but yesterday, I had to respect them and appreciate them for THEIR specific character, not thrust my own agenda on them. My approach at the start of the sesh had led to 2-3 gnarly wipe outs where I came very close to taking it to the head in the very shallow water. After the break I took to watch them, and try to understand them I caught a few super fun shoulders.
When I got home, Nick asked me how the sesh was and I explained it was more recon than session, and it reminded me of one of my other lessons in my book Be Surf: Every day is a learning day.